Foreword

Civilization IV brings you an unprecedented selection of map options. However, everything good also comes at a cost. In this case, the cost is that there are so many options, you almost need a guide to help you find the map situations that appeal to you, especially for multiplayer.

This document is intended to help guide you.

First, a few rules of thumb.

We recommend you try a map on its default settings first. These are intended to give the best overall experience. This will also help you to better understand what the options actually do (by being able to compare alternative settings against the default.)

The featured maps will show you graphics of what to expect if you choose Play Now.

In single player, it should be OK to try any map on any settings and play it blind. For multiplayer, however, if you want specific results, we recommend taking the time to familiarize yourself with the maps and settings so that you understand what to expect when you play.

The map sizes are not uniform from one map script to the next. We have aimed at keeping the number of viable cities even from map to map, but on oceanic maps, a large portion of the map is water and more or less lost to use. All-land maps can squeeze cities in to every nook and corner, so their map dimensions are smaller. A couple of maps (noted below) are larger or smaller than normal and break even this trend.

We are not responsible for user-made maps. We welcome them, but refer you to any documentation accompanying them (written by the map's author(s)) for information about them.

What follows ia a list of all settings for each map and what they do. After that, a more general set of descriptions and recommendations.

Map Settings - Technical Info - Listed Alphabetically

NOTE: Due to the large number of images, only some of the map scripts have sample images shown on the page. To see the sample image for other map scripts, simply click the name of the map script. This will open the sample image in a new window.

Polar Climate: Icy at the map's center, warmer in the surrounding regions.
Balanced Landmasses: Each player gets their own subcontinent, roughly equal in quality.
Spokes: Landbridges connect each player area to the map's center region.

AREAS PER PLAYER - Choose whether there will be "extra", uninhabited buffer zones.

"Random" - Randomly picks one of the options.

"1 Per Player" - DEFAULT - One subcontinent per player, regions may be close together!

"2 (10 Players Max)" - Adds extra uninhabited regions, but this can only be done for up to ten
civs. If more than ten civs are included, then you get 1 per player.

LAND SHAPE - Choose the roughness of the shoreline for player areas.

"Random" - DEFAULT - Randomly picks one of the options.

"Natural" - Player areas will have spidery peninsulas, maybe small islands too.

"Pressed" - Player areas will have some variance, maybe a peninsula or two.

"Solid" - Player areas will have smooth shorelines and be more densely packed.

NEUTRAL TERRITORY - Choose the roughness of the shoreline for neutral/uninhabited areas.

"Random" - DEFAULT - Randomly picks one of the options.

"Varied" - Differs from one neutral zone to another, within the same game!

"Pressed" - Neutral areas will have some variance, maybe a peninsula or two.

Bitter Cold: Only the equatorial region is still temperate. Little jungle, some forest.
Very Low Sea Level: Much of the oceans are now locked in ice. Where the land is still habitable
there is more of it to inhabit now. This makes for a unique Civ experience.

LANDMASS TYPE - Choose the size and number of landmasses

"Random" - DEFAULT - Weighted random roll that favors Islands and Narrow Continents
but is capable of giving you any of the landmass options.

"Wide Continents" - Will give you one to three large continents.

"Narrow Continents" - Can vary in number of continents, but they tend to be narrow and snaky.

"Islands" - Large islands, mostly, perhaps some will snake together and combine.

"Small Islands" - Small islands and rarely anything you could call a continent.

Regional Map: No world wrap
Land-Heavy Map: 52 plots wide, 32 plots tall, at "Standard" map size
Neutral Zone: Nobody ever starts in the desert region in the middle of the map.
Teams Alternate: Lowest team number starts in the south, next in the north, etc.

Assymetrical: The south gets more arable land but fewer resources.
Nile-Style Rivers: There are always four rivers, running randomly from south to north.

Global Map: World Wrap left to right
Small Oceanic Map: 64 plots wide, 40 plots tall, at "Standard" map size

We got rid of some of the "useless" extra ocean for this map type.

1v1 Coastal Start: If there are only two civs in the game, both will start on the coast.
Team Coastal Start: If playing a team game (at least two players per team, on average) all
players belonging to all the teams will start along the coast.
"Free For All" Start: In all other cases, civs may start anywhere, including deep inland!

"True" Pangaea In Civ3, Pangaea maps often ended up producing more than one major land
mass. Halting this issue was one of my personal pet projects, to produce
a reliable pangaea that would always deliver the real deal: one land! It
may be possible for a very rare failure, but in hundreds of test games
the closest it came to failure was two large areas connected by a choke
point that was only one plot wide. Close call! But still a pangaea!

"Natural" terrain I also made a point of allowing for more varied terrain, including some
small islands off the coast every now and then.

"Natural" - Creates a solid core, then adds four to seven "subcontinental" regions
which can vary in shape and size, or even be a small island chain. These
often reach out in to the sea, forming snaky peninsulas or occupying
a "corner" of the main continent with a fat, unpredictable protrusion.

"Pressed" - Creates a solid core, then adds two to four "larger" subcontinents. This
setting also shifts more to the north or south, at random.

"Solid" - Nothing but the solid core, larger and with smoother shorelines.

Polar Climate: Icy at the map's center, warmer in the surrounding regions.
Balanced Landmasses: Each player gets their own subcontinent, roughly equal in quality.
Ring: Landbridges connect each player area to adjacent regions.

AREAS PER PLAYER - Choose whether there will be "extra", uninhabited buffer zones.

"1 Per Player" - DEFAULT - One subcontinent per player, regions may be close together!

"2 (10 Players Max)" - Adds extra uninhabited regions, but this can only be done for up to ten
civs. If more than ten civs are included, then you get 1 per player.

LAND SHAPE - Choose the roughness of the shoreline for player areas.

"Random" - DEFAULT - Randomly picks one of the options.

"Natural" - Player areas will have spidery peninsulas, maybe small islands too.

"Pressed" - Player areas will have some variance, maybe a peninsula or two.

"Solid" - Player areas will have smooth shorelines and be more densely packed.

NEUTRAL TERRITORY - Choose the roughness of the shoreline for neutral/uninhabited areas.

"Random" - DEFAULT - Randomly picks one of the options.

"Varied" - Differs from one neutral zone to another, within the same game!

"Pressed" - Neutral areas will have some variance, maybe a peninsula or two.

Regional Map: No world wrap
Ultra-Small Map: This map is our smallest map script, meant to give MP players an arena
in which to play "deathmatch" style, for ladder play or team play!

Varied Dimensions: Top vs Bottom and Four Corners settings are square maps. Left vs Right
is normal/rectangular. All settings are ultra tiny and cramped!
Square Maps: TvB and 4C are square: both are 32 x 32 plots at "Standard" map size
Rectangular Maps: LvR is rectangular, being 40 plots wide and 24 plots tall at "Standard"
Friendly Climate: To reduce dud zones, dud maps and dead regions, the polar areas have
been shrunken, and the amount of desert was significantly reduced.

TEAM PLACEMENT - Each of the three "Team Placements" offers a different strategic bent.

"Left vs Right" - The two halves are split by an ocean! Sometimes you can cross early.

"Four Corners" - Each "quadrant" is guarded by water, except at the very center, where
there is a single X-shaped land bridge connecting all sectors.

TEAM SETTING - When playing a team game, choose where teammates will start.

"Start Together" - DEFAULT - For two teams, if playing TvB or LvR, teammates will start
in the same half. For 4C, each team gets assigned a "Quadrant" at
random. You never know where the enemy may start!

For three teams, each team gets a "quarter" of the map and starts
there. One quarter of the map will be left empty!

For four teams, each team gets a quarter of the map.

For five or more teams, starts will be scattered, teammates grouped.

"Start Separated" - For two teams, TvB or LvR, every other teammate will be put on the
opposite half! For 4C, each teammate will be put in a different quad!

For three or four teams, each teammate is put in a different quad.

For five or more teams, starts will be scattered randomly.

"Start Anywhere" - For all team counts, starts are scattered and anybody can be anywhere!

"2 Plots Wide" - DEFAULT - Spokes will be two plots wide. Some canals may be possible.

"3 Plots Wide" - Spokes will be three plots wide. Canals are unlikely or impossible.

Warning to Single Players!

All of the maps can be played in single or multi player, at your discretion. However, some maps are specifically aimed at the multiplayer side of the game.

Balanced

This script guarantees the key strategic resources are near all civs, knocking out the "risk" to certain civs who require resources for their Unique Units.

Mirror

This script is aimed at 1v1 or two-teams play. It's a wild thing to play in single player!

Hub, Ring, and Wheel

These scripts are completely artificial, intended to supply balanced environments for MP action.

Team Battleground

The name says it all! This is a "deathmatch" map for multiplayer, aimed at quick, brutal gaming.

Warning to Multiplayer Players!

All of the maps can be played in single or multi player, at your discretion. However, some maps are specifically aimed at the single player game, while one or two require some additional warnings.

Continents

Soren has described this map as the "anti-MP" map. It is our most random, least predictable map. Of all the maps in the game, this one is the least well-suited map for multiplayer games involving teams. It is also the default map for single player. The behavior is nearly identical to Civ3's "Continents" map setting, creating a random number, size and shape of continents. Civs will start on the largest/richest of these and usually have multiple civs on any large continents.

Terra

This is the largest map script in our core group shipping with the initial game. I know some folks on the Civ3 forums caught wind of the notion that Large and Huge map sizes would be a little bit smaller than comparable maps in Civ3, but it just isn't true for this map type. Terra is gargantuan, and in fact, like the Earth Map scenarios, it may not perform well on older or slower machines.

Terra produces earth-like worlds. There is one large continent where all players begin. This is equivalent to Asia, Europe, Africa and the East Indies all rolled in to one, but it is produced randomly and will vary to a significant extent. A second continent akin to the Americas is lost out in the fog and will not be reachable until ships can safely cross long ocean distances. There will tend to be some smaller landmasses akin to Australia or Antarctica that may or may not be reachable prior to oceanic shipping.

Soren thinks this would be the ideal PBEM/Pitboss map and he may be right. At the very least, though, it is not a likely candidate for normal use in MP, being slower in almost every measurable way!

Custom Continents

If you choose "One Per Team" setting, this map is akin to a "team version" of Islands and is very friendly to multiplayer gaming. Any other setting will tend to produce incongruous starts! This is a map chiefly aimed at the single player crowd! Use anything but "One Per Team" at your own risk.

Maze

This is a novelty map. If it's not your cup of tea, don't complain. Just move on to something else!

Mirror

This map is aimed specifically at 1v1 games or two-teams games. Four-teams is also relatively playable, but if you use it for anything else, expect some incongruous starting situations! Also please be aware of the dramatic difference between the land-only setting ("Small Lakes") and the oceanic settings!

Afterword

I hope you find this resource useful. This is an eleventh-hour reference guide written in English and not able to be translated for the initial release. Sorry about that! However, I kept on working on adding more maps or improving our existing maps literally right up to the deadline for new content.

It is my hope that generous and capable fans will translate this in to the other languages and make it readily available to non-English speakers.

I hope you enjoy Civ4, and that you get the most out of the map selections and offerings.